Bristol City could play second fiddle to Rovers - Colin Sexstone

OUTGOING Bristol City chairman Colin Sexstone says the delay over the club's planned new stadium could see Bristol Rovers overtaking them and becoming the biggest sporting outfit in the area.

While City wait for another inquiry into whether the Ashton Vale site of their 30,000-seater ground can be developed, Rovers are also making plans for a new stadium, at Frenchay.

Mr Sexstone, who is quitting the City board after 11 years at the helm as chief executive and more recently chairman, has warned his successor Keith Dawe that complacency at Ashton Gate could see Rovers become the No 1 club in the city.

And he says City should already be looking at alternative sites to Ashton Vale, to ensure a new stadium can be built in the next few years.

Despite this, Mr Sexstone believes the group standing in the way of the current stadium plan should "hang their heads in shame", adding the opportunity to create vital jobs for deprived areas in South Bristol are being squandered the longer the project is held up.

Bristolian Mr Sexstone leaves the Robins in a far stronger position than when he first arrived at Ashton Gate in 2001, but believes City's position is under threat if the Ashton Vale project ends in failure.

Although Bristol City Council have given planning permission for their stadium, the scheme is subject to approval by a central government inspector and is no nearer getting off the ground than when first launched in December 2007.

While City have been bogged down first by a public inquiry into whether the Ashton Vale site can be designated a town green, and then by a judicial review, Rovers have applied to South Gloucestershire Council for permission to build a £40 million, 21,700 all-seater stadium at Frenchay.

The Pirates may be operating two divisions beneath City in League Two, but Mr Sexstone is concerned that they will be in a position to challenge the Championship club's position if they move into their new stadium before City's £95m Ashton Vale project comes to fruition.

Mr Sexstone said: "We are by far the biggest sporting club in the region right now. But the challenge for those who follow me is to make sure that continues and Bristol City cements its position.

"If Bristol Rovers have their new stadium project approved, which appears likely, and we have still not got Ashton Vale off the ground, that may change. You cannot afford to dismiss the impact a new stadium can have on a football club and there are plenty of examples around the country.

"A new stadium tends to give clubs renewed impetus. Crowds go up, more money is invested and teams tend to be upwardly mobile as a result. We have Steve Lansdown's (City's owner) support and wealth behind us, but we cannot afford to become complacent."

Rather than expose themselves to further lengthy and expensive delays, Mr Sexstone insists City's board of directors should already be considering alternative options in the event that they are unable to proceed with the Ashton Vale project.

He said: "We gained planning permission to redevelop Ashton Gate several years ago and may end up having to go down that route. What we cannot do is wait another three years on Ashton Vale and then nothing happens.

"The club has to decide which way it goes. Does it go for the new stadium or cut its losses and redevelop Ashton Gate?

"There are three options as I see it – stay where you are and develop, push ahead with the Ashton Vale project or look to build a new stadium elsewhere.

"Whatever they do, any of those options will be better than sitting back and doing nothing."

Mr Sexstone has campaigned vehemently for a new stadium at Ashton Vale and continues to take issue with those who oppose the scheme.

He said: "It has been such a wasted opportunity. The small minority who have stood in the way of progress should look at those youngsters who leave school in south Bristol without jobs or apprenticeships and hang their heads in shame.

"They have abused the system and, although the legal situation will change in the future, it may not happen in time for this deal.

"To be given two planning permissions and still not be able to build the new stadium has to be the biggest frustration of my 11 years at Bristol City."

Comments

Tourman
Ashton vale and Silbury road protesters hang your heads in shame for our future local youngsters
who even now are nearing the end of their education at Ashton Park school.. no work but we do have a nice (tip) sorry green

He said: "It has been such a wasted opportunity. The small minority who have stood in the way of progress should look at those youngsters who leave school in south Bristol without jobs or apprenticeships and hang their heads in shame.
I'm not against the Ashton Vale stadium per se but I think this argument about job creation and especially apprenticeships is stretching the truth a bit, is he talking about the jobs created in the construction of the stadium (what are we talking about 24 months or work and they would employ skilled workers - they wouldn't take on apprentices just for this?) or apprenticeships created at the new stadium in the future - turnstile operators, programme sellers, car park attendants?
And you're making it sound like some sort of third world disaster, 'Rovers could be bigger than City' - shock, horror!! So what? The last time I looked this was still the BRISTOL Post, even if it's no longer the Evening Post.
Give it a rest Sexstone, you're sounding like a bitter and twisted ex employee - which is exactly what you are.

Have you been spying on the meetings of Bristol's great & good CityClarky ?
With the exception of the travellers site you have nailed it.
But only £15 million will be needed for a 50% share because the stadium investment, per the notes to the UWE accounts, is actually £30 million total.

Landsdown has been burning over £1 million of HIS money every month for the last 3 years. I feel he needs to complete this to claw back his loses and rightly so.
With this in mind, perhaps he should buy the UWE stadium for £40m and groundshare with all three clubs.
He can then get his cash back from the supermarket and turn ashton vale into a traveller site.

Every club pretty much that has had a new stadium in the past 20 years has seen attendances rise.Fortunes on the pitch generally improve too.Look across to South Wales to see the benefits a new stadium has brought to Cardiff and Swansea and look east to Reading.Bristol needs a stadium and with it would come high profile pop concerts and business conferences etc.If Bristol wants to remain a backwater fine but it is a shame that a city with great potential seems to have people within it who want to stop the city and it's football clubs progressing.

Mr Sexstone prediction of the Blues being the bigger club if they get there stadium is a reasonable assumption ,as in the fifties when attendances virtually mirrored one another's,if they assume top dog status good luck,it will have been a long old wait if it does happen.
As for the U.W.E. stadium ,planing permission and the building of the stadium,is going to happen,it is being built on private land.But their may be a fly in the ointment when it comes to the Memorial site being redeveloped,Rovers board need the money of the sale of the site to Sainsbury's to finance the new stadium,without it they will not have the finance to build the stadium.But with luck Rovers get the planning permission from B.C.C. and their are no anti-redevelopment protesters, who manage to come up with a loop hole that they can exploit to hold it up.Because at present City are five years and counting in the hold up of their new stadium,Rovers could simply not afford such a lengthy process,so for the Blues sake you have not got to deal with low life like SWISS BOB,who sits on his hill and gets to dictate to a democratically elected council, of a City he does not reside in or pay council tax too for the infrastructure which he then uses to earn his living in Bristol.Before returning to his Long Ashton home in the evening.Where he is on the local parish council and was elected on his anti-stadium manifesto.